Chapter 47
Forty-Seven
Casimir
We landed at the chalet a few hours later. Florian and Ella came out to greet us. I noted that Anna’s friend looked much more rejuvenated since I’d last seen her. That was good. One less thing for Anna to worry about.
The two women gathered Milly between them and hustled her off to bed to rest while discussing the best types of food for her to begin regaining her strength. I longed to go with them, but Florian was staring at me, his arms crossed, looking ready to explode.
“Did something happen?” I asked.
“It sure looks like it.” He gestured at the floor.
I glanced down at Bryna. Her eyes burned with hatred, but her hands were locked at her sides, and she didn’t move, courtesy of the slave collar around her neck.
I’d played around with a few ideas on how to keep her from trying to escape, but in the end, Anna suggested the entirely fitting punishment of wearing one of the collars.
Infused with my alpha command, Bryna wasn’t going anywhere unless I told her so.
“We captured her. She had some scale dragons with her, courtesy of the reds. They tried to trap me.”
“Someone told her everything,” Florian deduced, shaking his head. “Mirko isn’t estranged from her after all.”
“It was the perfect cover for him to be running the slave markets through her. Not that we’ll be able to prove any of that, but it won’t matter. Bryna will stand trial for what’s she done. An elite will be prosecuted for their crimes against the grounded. That is what matters.”
That, and Anna being safe.
“I should have been there,” Florian growled as the three women appeared above us on the loft. “First this and then Dirk leading men to the border. That’s my job, Casimir. I belong out there. Protecting us. Not here being a glorified babysitter. I’ve done enough.”
“Very well,” I said, “Go back to Kylma. Send Durion and Kolar back when you arrive. I want extra protection for the women.”
“Sure. Fine. Whatever,” Florian snapped, heading for the door.
I thought about reprimanding him for his attitude but decided not to push it.
I understood his sentiments. He was stuck here, out of danger, while men, his men, put their lives on the line.
That was what made Florian so good at his job.
He cared, and I was not going to punish him for being upset at being safe when they weren’t.
“Florian, wait,” I called as another idea came to me, and I followed him outside. “I have one more thing for you to do once you’re back at the citadel …”
“I still don’t know how I did it,” Anna said later that night as she lay pressed against me, lounging on a chair on the water’s edge. The soft lapping of the water against the shore under the breeze was peaceful.
The warmth of my mate in my arms was not. It made a dragon think thoughts. Dirty, dirty thoughts. Grinning, I funneled the desires of those thoughts through our bond.
“I’m serious, Caz!” she protested, wiggling her ass against my crotch anyway.
“Your dragon is strong. That’s how you broke the collar. It seems obvious to me.”
“So why haven’t I been able to fully shift? Or even do what I did in the basement?”
I leaned down to kiss her neck. She shuddered happily. “Have you tried?”
“Um. Well, no. But I didn’t try then. It just sort of happened,” she admitted as I reached around to play with her breasts through her thin shirt. “Stop that.”
“No, it feels good. You can’t hide that from me.”
“Damn,” she said with quiet laughter. “I guess I can’t say I have a headache either.”
“Not if it’s a lie,” I confirmed. “Besides, I can tell you don’t want to turn me down.”
“I also want to have this conversation, but your hands and your cock pressing against my ass are a bit of a distraction,” she harrumphed playfully, getting up and moving to a clear patch of grass. “Okay. So. Uh, how exactly do I shift?”
I sat up as well, hiding a smile as her nipples poked through her shirt. Damn she looked perfect. I couldn’t imagine having ever been with anyone else. Not when Anna just … filled every desire I could conceive of.
“Caz. Up here. Focus.”
“You shift by calling to your dragon. Letting its power into the front of your mind and picturing it sort of, um, emerging from you.” I stood, frowning.
This was new to me. I’d never had to guide someone on how to shift before.
It just came so natural to me. Trying to tell someone how to do something so instinctual was like trying to teach them how to breathe.
You just did it.
“Okay. Focus,” Anna said, putting her fingers to her temples and squeezing her eyes shut. “Dragon. Come forth. I want to become you. Come out and play.”
Nothing was happening.
Anna tried for another twenty minutes, but nothing I could tell her to do was helping her dragon emerge.
“Maybe I’m never actually going to change.”
“You will.”
She looked at me with those perfect violet eyes, full of curiosity and doubt. “You say that with utmost confidence. Like you know the answer but won’t tell me. How can you be so sure, Caz?”
“Because very few can shift into their dragon so soon after it awakens. Most take months to achieve the first shift from human to dragon and back. Some longer than that. Your dragon is growing stronger. When you were under great duress, it spiked its power. You just have to keep at it. Keep growing.”
She didn’t like that answer. I went to her, wrapping my arms around her and holding her tight. “It’ll be okay, my love.”
“Yeah, I guess.” She squirmed in my arms so she could look up at me. “How long did it take you after your dragon woke up?”
“That doesn’t matter. I am not everyone,” I said. “I don’t count.”
Anna wasn’t having any of my evasion. “How long?”
I tried to resist, but the irritation that came through our mate bond when I did stopped me.
“No secrets, remember?” she pointed out when I frowned in confusion at the strength of her emotions.
“That isn’t why I was trying to keep it to myself!” I rushed to tell her. “I want no secrets from you, Anna. I also don’t want you comparing your journey to mine. We don’t know what will happen with you. This is a first for everyone. You have to remember that.”
“I just want to know,” she said.
I shrugged, not seeing a way out. “A minute or so, I think.”
Her jaw dropped. “What? Less than a minute for your first shift?”
“Yeah.”
“Wow. That is impressive.”
I just stood there.
“Whatever,” she said a few seconds later, blowing it off.
“How can I make it better? I didn’t want to upset you,” I said, pulling her into a hug. I caressed her head, tucking away wayward strands of hair and trying to reassure her that I didn’t think less of her in any way.
“You didn’t upset me, Caz. Oh, maybe I’m jealous. But that’s not the same thing.”
“Are you sure?”
She laughed. “Very. But if you want to make me feel special, you could …”
“It would be my pleasure,” I growled, picking her up over one shoulder and turning to run away from the chalet instead of into it.
Anna laughed wildly—until I tore her clothes from her body, at which point her noises became decidedly more enjoyable.